I'm struggling with our grocery budget. I'm aiming at $400/month for me, DH and toddler, but I am failing horribly at it. So, I'm trying to track what every item costs, and realistically how much of everything I need to get through the month. I'm trying to pick cheap meals, and am willing to give up variety in the name of cheap, but DH does require meat in pretty much every meal.
Has anyone else compiled a monthly grocery list and expenses? Here's what I've come up with.
Costco:
Organic Ground Beef (3 pack, each pack will feed us twice, $17.99 x2 makes 12 dinners) = $36
Flank Steak (makes 4 dinners) = $20
Organic Chicken ($5.99/lb, 1 lb is 1 dinner, 2 dinners) = $12
Organic Eggs (4 dozen, weekend breakfast, baking & at least 2 dinners) = $15
Bacon (weekends breakfast, at least 4 dinners) = $15
Shrimp (frozen bag 31-40 count makes 4 dinners) = $20
Salmon ($9.99/lb, 2 dinners) = $20
Butter (baking and cooking) = $7
Pepperjack Cheese (sandwiches) = $6
Cheddar Cheese = $5
Clif Bars (DH breakfast) = $20
Miscellaneous Stock Up Items (garlic powder, olive oil, toilet paper, detergent, etc.) = $20
Total: $196
Safeway:
Organic Milk ($5.29 a gallon, approximately 8 gallons) = $40
Bread (6 loaves) = $21
Salami (2 lbs) = $20
Turkey (3 lbs) = $24
Organic Yogurt (4 tubs) = $12
Apple Sauce (4 jars) = $12
Fruit & Veg (various, purchased weekly, some frozen) = $50 estimate
Misc. Others (puree packets for son, crackers, pasta & sauce, cereal, jalapeno chips for DH lunches, etc.) = $75 estimate
Total: $254
Grand Total: $450
The biggest portion of the miscellaneous Safeway expenses is the baby food. Trying hard to get DS to eat more "real" veggies, but right now if I want to get vegetables in him consistently he insists on the fruit and veggie mixed purees that come in squeezie packets at $1.25 a pop. I've tried making my own purees, but didn't find it to be cheaper when he refused to eat it.
Overall though, I'm pretty happy with this list even at $450 per month because I definitely think I'm overestimating some things - this is enough for 32 meals, we do eat out a couple of times per month, the 3 pack of bacon at Costco definitely gets us through more than 1 month, etc. So sticking to this list might really get us closer to $400. I guess I just need to really do it now! If anyone else has gone through this exercise, would love to see. It's hard to compare budgets when people just say $100 or $500 or whatever.